Does Free Coffee Make For A Happier Office?

Recent years have seen a trend – especially in tech companies – to reward staff in the office with free coffee, cold drinks, and often food. If the office is a fun, inviting place to work with perks a plenty, would this make you want to hang out there for longer?

Cappuccino and Double Macchiato on tap may seem for some an extravagance but research has shown that offering free coffee can save up to 30 minutes of time, five days a week, for 50 weeks a year. That adds up to 125 hours of downtime in the office avoided, the equivalent of about three weeks of full time work. So, if you’re an employer, it’s surely in your interest to encourage people to stay at the office, and to be energised and caffeinated while there.

You only have to look at hugely successful companies such as Google, Pixar, Skyscanner, and Dropbox to see that happy staff make for a happy, hardworking and conscientious team. These companies have led the way in incentivising staff and creating a work environment that people want to come to. Ping pong tables, basketball courts, or helter-skelter slides. ‘Steak and Beer Nights’ might be a bit extravagant for your office but a fresh bean coffee machine producing great tasting coffee is a very good place to start.

One of many coffee machines installed by us, Rocco Espresso, within the Skyscanner offices.

Over 2.25 billion cups of coffee are consumed in the world every day. According to a recent survey, 38% of workers think they couldn’t live without it. It is a simple pleasure but it is also a pretty big deal. On average, an office worker on the daily commute pays up to £3 for a morning coffee then perhaps nips out of the office to buy another one at lunchtime or mid-afternoon. This would mean a total spending of £25 per week, £100 per month and £1200 per year on coffee.

Can you as the employer, afford to give them all a wage increase of £1200 per year to pay for their growing Starbucks bill? In most cases not. As an employer you could keep them happy and make them feel valued for much, much less. More and more companies are opting to do just that across the UK.

Approximate costings for a FRESH Bean to Cup coffee machine in the office is £250 per month to make coffees for a staff of 20. This includes freshly roasted beans, milk, machine servicing, and warranty. Surely a no brainer?

Regular caffeine injections to improve concentration and keep staff morale up throughout the working day. . . If nothing else, it buys you some time before having to install the helter-skelter.